Sulphur man arrested in connection to string of burglaries

SULPHUR, LA (KPLC) - Sulphur Police say they have arrested a man in connection to a string of burglaries that have taken place over the last two weeks.

23-year-old David Epperly has been arrested and is being currently being charged with 18 counts of burglary, 8 counts of theft, 3 counts of property damage, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana. Detective Jeremy Cain of Sulphur Police said those charges could change.

“We started investigating a series of burglaries approximately two weeks ago," Cain said. “We were getting consistent video of the same guy. Going into businesses, stealing all kinds of random stuff. Pressure washers, tools, any industrial tools, he was stealing them. He was cutting fences. He was going under fences, going through them stealing this stuff. They weren’t leaving their equipment out unsecured."

Cain says Epperly stole between $20,000 and $30,000 worth of items over a span of two weeks and tried to sell some of the items online.

The Sulphur Police Department staged a buy and was able to arrest Epperly on Wednesday.

“Told him hands up, hands up," says Cain. "He complied the whole way. After detaining him we were able to locate where he was staying. We contacted the homeowner and we got consent to search. Upon searching the residence, he showed us an area where Epperly was staying. We got consent from Epperly to search his property and we recovered $10,000 items alone in that residence raid.”

Cain says Epperly confessed to stealing the items, saying that there was a second location more items was being stored at.

“We were able to get a search warrant and early this morning we conducted the search warrant and we recovered an additional $20,000 worth of stolen merchandise.” Cain said.

Authorites say they have been able to locate some of the owners of the stolen items.

“We will continue to look over our reports and speak to the surrounding businesses with the hopes we will find the owners of the unclaimed property and if you believe you have bought property from Epperly please contact the police department," Cain said.

You can call the Sulphur Police Department at 527-4550.

Epperly is currently being held at the Sulphur jail on a $25,000 bond.

Author

Reporter

Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Chandler is excited to be in Lake Charles covering the news that matters to you. Chandler graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in December 2017 after studying broadcast journalism and public relations. She worked for the student-run news station, News 6.

Saturday will be a nice day. There will be a lot of sunshine with a few small clouds. Temperatures will be more of an issue. It will warm up to the upper 80s and lower 90s. The humidity will be high making it feel like the upper 90s, possibly eclipsing the 100 degree mark.